Man accused in kidnapping ordered to stand trial

A Carp Lake man accused of kidnapping another man at gunpoint earlier this year has been found competent to stand trial on the host of criminal charges he is facing.

Based upon a report from the Michigan Center for Forensic Psychiatry, 90th District Court Judge Richard W. May found James Robert Dankert, 46, competent to stand trial on the 12 felony charges he is facing. The charges include kidnapping, assault with intent to commit a felony, receiving and concealing a firearm, discharging a firearm at or in a building, carrying a concealed weapon, two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, and five counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony. The kidnapping charge carries a maximum penalty of up to life in prison. The most serious of the remaining charges are 10-year felonies. The five felony firearms counts are punishable by two years in prison in addition to any other sentences he might receive from the other charges.

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In court Wednesday, Dankert waived his preliminary examination and the case was bound over to circuit court. He remains lodged in the Emmet County Jail in lieu of a $1 million bond.

Dankert is accused of going to a home on Ellis Road in Bliss Township late March 2, firing several shots from a revolver and then demanding that a 56-year-old man at the residence go with him.

Police arrested Dankert about 90 minutes later after they stopped the car he was driving on Gill Road near Pleasantview Road.